i never go anywhere without a camera. i drink to get drunk. comfortable with technology, but not a geek. write for the satisfaction, not the story. take people's advice, but careful of their opinions.

Monday, October 08, 2007

every cent counts

i was working in the fruit shop the other day when a lady started causing a fuss at the counter. she demanded to see the manager because she'd been overcharged.

we've got a new fella working on the registers and when she asked to pay on credit card he rounded her bill up to $15.45 on the eftpos machine from the register total that was.... wait for it.... $15.44....!!!

a grand total of 1c overcharge.

ok, granted, he should have put in the exact amount that was on the register into the eftpos machine, but c'mon! he's new and who really gives a crap about 1c ???

she was ranting at the manager about being robbed by crooked shop keepers and how, in her words, 'every cent counts' - yeah obviously.

the manager couldn't believe what he was hearing, and neither could anyone else in earshot. what do you say to someone that's loudly complaining about being overcharged by 1c? he just smiled, nodded, apologised and assured her it wouldn't happen again.

i reckon he should have offered her store credit.

7 comments:

scoot
said...

Okay - first up - every cent DOES actually count when you're a normal Australian who works hard, pays their bills, has a mortgage, runs a car - etc etc. I haven't been reading this blog for long, but I gather you're a mature aged uni student, who have no responsibilities other than occasionally paying your rent and handing in the odd assignment in your basic of all basic courses (marketing right? you and 400,000 others who think they're creatively talented or something - not exactly rocket science - might lead to a nice government job)You clearly don't have a mortgage (unfortunately for you, you pay some other chumps..), don't run a car etc fucking etc, and probably get paid youth allowance for your embarassing 26yo "professional student" status.

Secondly, rounding up for credit/eftpos transactions is a LUCRATIVE ploy used by many-a-business keen to suck their consumers dry for the better of themselves. Granted - in the situation explained the cashier was new and so on and so forth, BUT THIS IS NOT THE POINT. Basic mathematics should teach you that 1c-5c (the extra that is most commonly taken to "round up" a value) from every customer who makes a plastic transaction is NO SMALL CHANGE to businesses and banks - not to mention a fucking rip off to hardworking people who pay high interest rates on their credit cards...I'm not sure if you were born with a silver spoon - and that's maybe why you're still fucking around like a 17yo despite the fact you're knocking on the door of 30 - but WAKE UP. You have some intelligent friends whose blogs often connect to your own self-centered little inner monologue - usually filled with nothing more than some bigoted, childish banter about which fucking trinket you want to buy with the "equity scholarship" money you pilfered so you can take yourself on a trip to some cliched tourist destination and probably do nothing more than get wasted and tell all your friends about how cool it was to vomit the contents of your stomach on overseas soil. GROW THE FUCK UP. WAKE UP. GET SOME FUCKING DEPTH. Maybe then you'll actually post something semi-intelligent.A Former Reader

yeah, like bart pointed out, it's like in the superman movie where lex luthor siphons off all the rounded off cents from the banks. but i'm pretty sure the fruit shop owner isn't evil or that clever. he even offered her $3.65 as compensation for the rest of the year.

thanks for taking the time to comment scoot.

shout out to kev too.

i gotta get back to the couch to watch the rest of mornings with kerry-anne while i punch another bong in and call my dad to send me more money.